Resolutions
by DarkMignonette
Summary: Love something in this life and you are destined to lose it. They were proof of that until they decided to break the rules. PipxSeras // One-shot


_I hope I've improved since my last Hellsing story. It has been awhile. I still love this pairing though! And I love the series. I can't wait until OVA six!_

_This really came about because I just felt like writing in the Hellsing fandom. It has structure of course, but it's pretty short._

_Hope you enjoy._

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"You can't mean that bastard left us here? Captain you've got to be bloody joking- we don't have orders, do we have orders?! Jesus Christ what the hell are we supposed to do-"

Pip Bernadette spun around and sent a heated glare down to his trembling subordinate. "Shut up! I can't fucking think, be quiet."

His heavy French accent slurred his words together to the point where his speech became difficult to understand. Caught in the thick, confusing feeling of pre-battle anxiety, his native language reared it's head and hindered his English.

His raggedy band of mercenaries watched him with tense expressions. They looked like a group of lost sheep praying for their shepherd to save them from slaughter. One of them spoke again. "Where is Sir Integra?"

Pip turned away from them, his long brown braid curling down his back. "I don't know."

"And Alucard?"

"Not here either."

A sense of dread filled the air. The men had not wanted to ask questions, but for the sake of their lives they had to know. Unfortunately those were not the answers they needed to hear. They were skilled fighters who charged into exploding minefields and hostile jungles without an ounce of hesitation, yet Pip's words reduced them to cowards. He confirmed their worst fears, their worst nightmares, and they sank back into a pit of despair.

They said nothing.

"Get out." Pip said suddenly. "Please" he added. "I'll let you all know our method of attack and defense soon. The enemy shouldn't be coming for a while, I'm guessing, but I don't know for sure so prepare yourselves. And I'm not just talking about weapons either. Remember what we're up against. Muster up any ounce of bravery you dogs can find, because you will need it."

And with that grim declaration hanging heavily over their shoulders the men trickled out of the room, mumbling quietly amongst themselves.

Pip stared up at the burning red moon as brooding shadows danced behind his left eye, the patch hiding the other from sight. Streaks of moonlight shined into the large window and threw lines of pure light onto the floor. Everything else remained seeped in darkness. The spacious room concealed too many imaginary evils that hid back and watched him, waiting.

The sky was littered with gray clouds that concealed earth from the stars and the angels. Only that moon lingered behind, a heavenly body the color of hells fire.

Pip took in deep drag of his cigarette. "_Mignonette _are you still here with me?"

"Of course."

He glanced behind him to see her ghostly outline resting in the darkness, on the very edge of light but just out of reach of it. That ridiculously huge gun lay at her feet like a faithful guard dog.

"You alright?" she asked in that dainty, British voice of hers. It sounded so out of place. "You don't look so good."

He faced her with a tired smile on his cheeks. "Don't underestimate me girl. I am fine. I'm only frustrated. I'm on my last pack of cigarettes."

She nodded, not sure if that was the truth but accepting it anyway. "Uh sorry. I don't have any to lend you, though. I don't smoke. "

"I know that dummy." he said. "And why are you all the way over there?" He gestured for her to move closer. "Come stand by me in the light. I feel like I'm talking to myself. I know you can see me but I can't see you."

There was a faint shuffling sound as she moved her gun to the side and stood up. He could even hear the ruffle of her skirt against her thighs as she sauntered over without protest. She eyed him with the usual curiosity and keen observance, forever waiting on orders. "What's our plan Captain?" she murmured.

He sighed. "I've asked you before to call me Pip or Bernadette, but you won't, will you?"

"You don't call me Seras."

He chuckled. "Ah well…_Mignonette_ suits you better."

She frowned, wrinkling her nose slightly. "But anyway…do I need to fetch more guns, bullets? I'm not perfectly sure of what's going on but I know I need to be ready. What's my position? I mean-"

He held a hand up to quiet her. "No you don't need to get anything else, the Geese are working on that and just wait a minute. Don't get yourself worked up."

Seras's shoulders quivered and her blue eyes were wide with emotion; mostly fear, not yet terror but still enough to set off the bell of alarm in her head. She gripped her hands over and over again out of nervousness, wearing her heart on her sleeve.

A thought occurred to him. "You haven't seen much battle, have you?"

She peered down at the ground as untold secrets lurked in her gaze. "I've seen…things, more than most people, but I'm probably not as experienced as you. I'm not naïve though, if that's what you mean."

Oh, yes she was. She couldn't be the most innocent thing on two legs but she was definitely naïve.

He hated to crush any sliver of surviving hope hiding in those big blues, childlike and sad as they were. Her white blond hair held the newness of a summer afternoon, not newly spilt blood.

Pip chewed on the end of his cigarette. "Is there anything you love?"

She sent him a baffled look. "What?"

He nearly dismissed his words but thought better of it. "Do you love something? Surely you do."

"Y-yeah I…guess." she answered without a moment of consideration. "Why?"

He placed a hand on her shoulder, ignoring her grumpy expression at the touch. "Then do yourself a favor and forget about it, throw it out the window. It will do you no good in the end."

She had a look of disbelief. "And why should I do that?"

"It makes the hurt worse, it makes it so much more to bear that you can't stand it anymore. We live in enough madness, we don't need the madness and the sorrows of the mind on top of it. Some of the Geese still hang onto things. Joe has a sister that he is close to, but I doubt he will ever see her again. Tom has a wife but will he ever come home to her? Probably not. A bullet will get him just like it gets all of us. We live and fight and that's all we do. Adding anything else makes it complicated."

His tone drifted away, like he'd forgotten where he was.

Seras glowered. "You're wrong. I'm sure thinking of them makes it easier, not harder. You're just saying that because you're a mercenary."

Pip almost flinched. Almost. Mercenaries fought solely for money with no other purpose, a wasted life that took others down with it. That continued to be an old sore, even if the scab of time had built a shield around it long ago. "Trust me. Before you fight say your goodbyes to idealism and God and whatever else you may care for."

"Is that what you do?" she grumbled, crossing her arms. "Or is there anything you do love?"

"That's personal,_ Mignonette_."

He enjoyed seeing her puff up like a flustered little bird. "Well you're always trying to be personal with me!" she said.

"I hope you're aware that I'm not heartless. I'm not like everyone else you are familiar with, I do love things." he laughed. "So I really can't say that I follow my own advice eh?"

Seras studied him for a moment, biting her lip. What did he meant by that exactly?

But before she could reply one of the Geese came crashing into the room. He immediately ran over to Pip, a look of distress on his rounded face. "Captain, an urgent message from Sir Integra! The enemy is making it's way here at an alarming rate and our orders are 'to stay and protect headquarters at all cost!"

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He was right.

A stinging blindness overcame her vision. She couldn't see. Her reality became draped with darkness but she could still feel the pain and smell the lurid stench of so much meat and blood. Her nose was broken and her arm was gone. The lacerations on her back bled profusely though she was helpless to stop it, and her body screamed at her to make a decision; either survive or die. Either choice meant suffering.

Seras wouldn't be able to see his face one last time. He talked to her in a soothing voice despite the blood that choked him. He called her_ mon amour_ and told her to live, get up and live girl because you can't die here.

She ached to see him just once more. Her vampiric senses told her where he was, but she was unable to picture his face; his angular jaw or his blue-green eye, the light fading from it all too quickly. Even the ability to watch his life end had been ripped away from her.

She wanted to comfort him but she only sobbed and screamed as he wilted away like a dying candle.

Their faces were dirty, covered in sweat. Pip's mouth was bruised and bleeding and Seras' eyes poured out a torrent of red.

He was right in the end. She had no choice but to say goodbye. The mere thought of it tore her insides apart just as her enemy's scythe had done with her body. But she refused to be hacked to pieces and thrown into oblivion like this, despite how tired she felt and how easy it would be to simply fall down and sleep forever.

Seras rejected that notion. She held onto all she knew even as Pip lay dead in her arms.

He had been wrong. She would not save her mind by forgetting him. She would not give him up to God or to the devil or to obscenity. She would cling to his soul and let it fuel her vengeance until every last bastard that did this perished in a sea of gore.

There was no wiping her memory clean of him. Their memories fused together as his blood ran down her lips and mixed with her own.

Pip failed to follow his own advice and so would she.


End file.
